HI AGAIN! Ok so I think I'm just in a typing mood today. I mean it's not like I have anything better to do, so the last chapter was a cliffhanger, but you may or may not already have an idea of what's going to happen. I hope you guys enjoy! Oh and Ciel!
Ciel: What do you want? I'm busy.
Me: Do the disclaimer please.
Ciel: OH ok. Ms. Kirkland doesn't own anything. Except that girl I almost killed with my carriage.
Chapter 2 Catherine's POV
"Who are you?" I whispered. A wave of pain shuddered through my body radiating especially in my foot and my arm. All I remembered was getting hit by some rich man's carriage while I ran from the bakers shop with the half a loaf of bread I had stolen. Of course I wasn't planning on eating all of it, I was planning on dropping it off at the orphanage, because I knew that their bread had beetles and mold. Normally I was much more careful, I mean getting hit didn't stop the police from arresting me for theft. The two people leaning over me looked healthy, and rich. Their clothes were made of fine wool rather than the thin cotton knickers and shirt that I always wore. I suddenly became self conscious about how dirty I was.
"I'm Ciel Phantomhive." The younger one said. He was merely a boy, though I guess I shouldn't say anything, he is older than me. I didn't tell you I was only eight years old did I? Yes eight years old and living on the streets as a thief.
"I'm Sebastian Michaelis, Ciel's butler, but I think the better question would be who are you?" This man had red-brown eyes and silky looking black hair. Something in his voice made me trust him, but made me feel maybe like he was hiding something. He quickly stopped what he was saying and waved his hands in the universal stop sign. "I'm very sorry that was rude, how about we get you something to eat and we'll talk then." I was awfully hungry having not eaten in 3 days, but I didn't trust rich people. After all he could poison me, and many rich men's motto was 'kill any street rat you find, no one will miss them anyways.'
"No thank you, I'm not hungry." I responded I my slightly raspy quiet clipped tone. My stomach grumbled loudly in protest, as if it was try to say, 'No she is'. Damn you stomach! Why would you betray me like that! Sebastian smirked.
"Well your stomach seems to think differently, come with me." He stood me up and took my hand to led me to the dining room. The house didn't seem to stop! I was huge, the staircase, winding hallways, the expensive looking curtains and the portraits. There were even huge marble pillars more than five times my waist size. Ciel came with us though I think it was only to make sure I didn't steal anything. Damn rich people. (anyone who can tell where that's from gets my virtual hug as well as waffles and a kitten!) I was about to follow Sebastian into the kitchen to eat in there when he instructed me to sit at the long fancy dining room table. I resisted for a little bit, but then gave in because my foot was killing me. I was still afraid to touch anything, I might leave a dirt stain if I did. The tablecloth in itself was a magnificent white and when it brushed against my legs it was the softest thing ever felt. Sebastian's voice snapped me out of my thoughts when he asked me,
"What would you like to eat?" in that smooth as silk voice of his. I didn't know! What was offered? I don't want to ask for something nice because then maybe he would think I had too high standards for a beggar. What would be safe to ask for? I decided on something simple a sandwich maybe.
"Ummm, may I have a sandwich please?" I asked in the politest way I could. Apparently that was good enough for him, because he said of course and quickly went off to prepare the aforementioned sandwich. The boy sat across from me looking terribly bored and slightly emotionless.
"You have a chance to eat at an Earl's manor and you pick a sandwich?" I looked up at him and studied him intensely. His hair was my color as well as his eyes, his eyes were the thing that shocked me the most. Even though only one could be seen, they were a startling shade of blue that were the exact same color as my own.
"Yes, I didn't want to ask for anything more." He gave me a questioning look. "I don't want to feel like I owe you anything more." He nodded as if he understood.
"You seem to be quite mature for a how old are you? Six year old?"
"I'm eight and when you live on the streets by yourself you don't exactly have a chance to be a kid." I said angrily. I felt a little bad, he was rich, what did he know about having to grow up quickly because he didn't know where his next meal was coming from. "I'm sorry that was rude of me." I apologized quietly.
"Its fine, I do suppose it was rather presumptuous of me to ask." Sebastian walked inthrough the double doors the most magnificent aroma coming from the kitchen. It smelt absolutely amazing! My mouth began to water and my stomach grumbled loudly as if reminding me, 'smell that it's food, you need some'.
"Here you are, the finest sandwich ever made." Suddenly the voice I call my street conscience went off in my head. It argued against my stomach, 'what if it's poisoned! Don't just eat it! Check it first.' I looked at the sandwich, lifted up the bread to look for anything suspicious like white powder, or and interesting scent, that stood out from the rest. Sebastian chuckled, "Checking for poison? You're smart for an eight year old, but I assure you I didn't do anything to it." Satisfied with that I picked it up carefully and took a cautious bite. It was delicious, once I swallowed and found that I didn't die, I picked it up and proceeded to devour the rest of the sandwich greedily filling my stomach to bursting. Half way through Ciel looked like he was going to tell me something, but Sebastian gestured for him not to. I don't think they thought I heard them but I did. He whispered in Sebastian's ear,
"Shouldn't she slow down? I don't think I've ever seen a girl eat so fast."
"No young master, it is likely that this is the first mean she's had in a long time." Ciel nodded and said no more. Upon hearing that however I did try to slow down and savor it hoping it would keep me going for the next couple of days. After I had cleared the plate, Sebastian looked at me and took a seat. "So, would you mind telling us your name?" he asked nicely and he had after all picked me up off the street and fed me a meal so I figured it wouldn't be too bad if I told him my name. I owed him that much.
"My name's Catherine." I responded in my naturally quiet voice. "Or Cat for short." I added, I didn't like being called by my full first name, it was long and regal, everything I was not.
"What a lovely pet name." Sebastian responded smiling. Under his breath I hear Ciel mutter,
"Insane cat obsessed moron." So Sebastian liked cats? I loved them myself and stopped to pet the strays when I wasn't running from the police. I think it must have been funny, to see an eight year old run by and see three or four policeman chasing after her.
"No surname?" Sebastian asked smoothly.
"No, none that I know of." I responded truthfully.
Ciel leaned forward propping himself up on his elbows, "So where were you going so fast, you ran right in front of my carriage we ran over your leg, you tripped." He added. I gulped. What if they kicked me out? Oh well I think they deserved to know. I may have died of starvation if they hadn't given me the meal that they fed me.
"Well I was running." I said. There that was the truth. I was running. They didn't know it was because I stole half a loaf of bread. It's not like I felt good about stealing it.
"That much is obvious, but who were you running from or where were you going in such a hurry?" Sebastian asked quirking up a slim eyebrow at my response.
"Well…." I paused, "I was running from….the police, but it wasn't my fault! I needed food, for the orphans, and I only took half a loaf of bread from the baker!" I rushed the last part trying to get my part of the story out. "I'm so sorry, it's just I hadn't eaten in several days, and-" Sebastian cut me off there.
"Really, its fine little one, you were desperate, now on to more serious business your backstory." Now Sebastian leaned in seeming quite eager to hear my story. I certainly didn't want to disappoint him, but I didn't know my exact beginning, but nonetheless I told him all I knew.
"Well, I was found somewhere, I don't know exactly where, I just knew it was in the ashes of some place that burnt down, by a nun named Clara. She wanted to keep me in the abbey but then the police took control. I was only a year old, and needed to be raised around other children, so he sent me to some orphanage. I lived there until I was about five. I didn't get adopted, I ran, and to be honest I'm pretty sure that they personally didn't care whether I came back or not and I hated it there." My bangs had been hanging in my face, and they didn't see my small burn scar on my face (think a very minimized version of Nice Holystone from Baccano!) that scar didn't stand out too badly, but the one on my leg sure did. "The kid's made fun of me because of my scars and told me I came from hell. Not even just my scars they made fun of anything, from the fact I preferred to play with boys and wear boys clothes, to the black, charcoal color of my hair, to the bright color of my blue eyes. They were very cruel even though I didn't act like I cared, I got in my fair share of fights, but to this day I protest I was provoked, and that Sierra had that punch to the nose coming for her." I added the last part sheepishly and the remarked darkly " According to the orphanage I was nothing but trouble, but nonetheless I've been successful living on the streets ever since." I spread my arms wide marking the end of my life story so far.
"You call not knowing where your next meal is coming from unless you steal it, and running from the police 'successful'!" Ciel asked eyes wide. Ha! I impressed a 12 year old rich kid with my life story. That was a first for me.
"Well, I haven't died from getting shot, starving, or getting run over, no thanks to you, and I haven't gotten arrested yet, so I can consider that fairly successful." I smiled, he seemed to have known some kind of hurt but he still was fairly well protected, while I considered myself on my own since birth. I didn't know who my parents were and I took care of myself at that orphanage. I got a lot of satisfaction from watching Ciel's mouth drop. Sebastian just smiled there. Then the reality of everything hit me.
"Wait, I got hit by your carriage and now I'm in your manor. You didn't pick me up for just hospitality, you saved me, I completely owe you my life, my life virtually belongs to you. I don't have any money, obviously if I did maybe I wouldn't be slowly starving to death, oh god, I can't repay you!" I exclaimed. What would they want with me? Surely they wanted me to pay them back. You didn't just get a warm fire and a free meal where I came from, you were lucky if you could hide from the rain on someone's front stoop without getting charged much less the medical service they gave me. (They bandaged my leg and foot that they had run over.)
"Calm down," Ciel said in that cold cruel voice that no child should have, "We don't want any payment from you." I bowed my head graciously, this was by far the nicest rich boy I had ever met. The ones his age and older normally sneered at me remarking about how the queen could allow such filth to stay on her streets. Speaking of the streets it was highly likely I needed to head back to them, it was already nightfall. Hmmm. I lived in a dangerous place by day, but by night? At night it was almost positively deadly. Creepy men roaming the streets, murderers, and god knows what else.
"I should be getting home." I stood and remarked voicing my original thought out loud.
"What home?" Ciel snickered. Sebastian gave him a stern look and turned to face me.
"Nonsense, stay the night tonight please, it isn't safe out there at this time." Thank god I thought to myself. "Not to mention we could get you cleaned up and perhaps some new clothes." Oh yeah no. I didn't really want to do that. I had one thing that I never took off, and I had a strange feeling that they would think that I had stolen it when it apparently really belonged to me. Sebastian came and took me by the hand, leading me back up the stairs. Ciel trailed behind us, no doubt surprised he wasn't the center of attention. We all entered what seemed to me to be my sleeping quarters, I was still a little wary, as, as I mentioned before it seemed that the butler was hiding something, he always is.
Sitting down on my bed Ciel commented, "Is it appropriate for you to help her bathe Sebastian?" I blushed red at the thought after all the man was quite handsome.
"Ciel! You're starting to think like Grell! Get your mind out of the gutter before I have to dig it out. Of course it's appropriate! I stand in a poco le parentis (in place of parent) with both of you." I was led into the bathroom, which somehow was already filled with warm water. I took of my dusty vest and my shorts, politely requesting Sebastian to turn around for the moment. Finally I had taken off everything and got into the bath. Sebastian turned back around, he scrubbed my hair and gave me a cloth for my body. Then he noticed my necklace.
"What's this?" he asked seeing the silver chain around my neck as he wrapped me in a towel.
"It's nothing." I responded quickly. He dressed me in a sleep shirt.
"Well, if it's nothing, then let me see it." He said in a very convincing, smooth voice.
"No." I responded quickly.
"Why not?"
"I'm afraid you'll take it, it's the only thing I have connecting me to my family, my parents, it was found on the blanket I was found in." We walked out of the bathroom. I turned and he grabbed the chain. I let out a squeak of surprise.
He gasped. "What?" Ciel asked. He came over to look at my precious blue necklace. "Where did you get this?" he asked harshly.
"It was found with me." I responded quickly. It was the truth after all. Sebastian seemingly recovered from the shock of my necklace looked to Ciel.
"Master, she looks a lot like you, she has your hair, eyes and the other piece of the Hope diamond. You were an only child am I correct?" Sebastian asked carefully.
"No, I had I sister. I always thought she died in the fire." He looked at me as if he was finally seeing me for the first time. He lifted the bottom of the sleep shirt,(that was dragging on the floor I should add) and looked at the burn scar on my leg.
"Kitty Cat?" he asked. "Cat, it's me, you don't remember, but I'm your older brother."